Week #3 - Aug 26-31

August 26-31, 2024

Welcome back to school! 

We now switch to our school schedule, which is 3:10 every weekday except Wednesday, when practice starts at 2:20. Practices start 5 minutes later on the days we meet at the Frisco Peninsula.

Practice Schedule 26-31 August

• Monday: SHS Track - Intermediate Run

• Tuesday: SHS Track - Flux Workout

• Wednesday: Frisco Peninsula, meet at the baseball field - Intermediate Run

• Thursday: Frisco Peninsula, meet at the baseball field - Hills

• Friday: SHS Track - Threshold Intervals

• Saturday: 8:00 am, meeting at the Tiger Dredge (Horseshoe Gulch) trailhead on Tiger Road - Long Run

Optional double runs and heavy lifts at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday & Thursday morning.

The Parents (and Students) Meeting is this Tuesday after practice, at 5:15 in the SHS library.

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Big thanks to the Adnan's for hosting our first pasta party of the new season! It was wonderful!

Thanks to the Ramey's for bringing drinks and snacks to the meet!

With school starting, it is a good time for a reminder on the importance of Championship Sleep. If that peaks your interest in the importance of sleep, there are a couple other good articles in the Recovery section of the team website here.

PTE - Pursue Team Excellence

"If you pursue team excellence, you will achieve individual excellence."

Mountain Vista 2-Mile 

Results, thoughts and a bunch of great photos are here. 

Cody Jones breaks down the races in this great Summit Daily Article: Summit High School cross-county team kicks off season with numerous top-10 finishes

At the surface level the results may not look that great compared to last year, but dig a bit deeper and I think we should be very impressed and optimistic. Read the review on the website to discover why.

You did a lot of things very well beyond your running. You responded calmly to the late bus and resulting minimal warm up time. You organized your warm ups well on your own while the coaches were at the coaches meeting. You set up and took down the team camp and cleaned up the area. Upperclassmen were great mentors for the freshmen.

I was especially impressed and want to compliment you and express my gratitude for a comment I received at our post-race meal. The boys and girls separated to different restaurants. Naturally! When I shuttled back to the boys restaurant, a waiter and waitress both said, without prompting, "Your TEAM was very polite!" That is outstanding and reflects the character of students drawn to cross country.

Now, there is one area that needs improvement. I would have "chewed you out" on the bus, but with the bus being late, decided I didn't want to add another stressor at the moment. I told everyone to wear Summit gear onto the bus and at all times at the meet. We weren't close to 100% compliance. 

Your appearance impacts the reputation and performance of the TEAM. 

Let's do better next time. 100% seems reasonable.

Parents - I will appreciate your assistance with this.

What time should runners be picked up after practice?

Good question. It varies, but generally plan on about 2 hours. So 5:15 to 5:30 M/T/T/F and 4:30 to 4:45 Wednesdays. (About 10:00 on Saturdays.) That sounds like a long practice and it is, but it isn't all running. We do a lot of movement prep – general warm up, dynamic warm up, mobility, technique – before workouts and a lot of strength and mobility (SAM) after workouts.

In general, be a bit late instead of early. It is very helpful for team bonding when runners have some time after practice to chat and relax, while stretching and recovering. 

Once practice is over, I'm glad to chat with parents. It's a good time to discuss travel plans for the big meets, organize team activities, etc. Often parents make me aware of things that students don't readily share - like how fatigued they are, if they have minor injuries, how much sleep they are getting, how stressed they are over homework, etc.

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The importance of iron levels for distance runners is discussed in several articles on the team website. Iron/ferritin supplementation is often necessary and critical for the success of distance runners, especially at altitude!!

Remember to ask for a CBC (complete blood count) along with a Ferritin Panel, at every check up. If you tend towards low ferritin or hemoglobin, it is good to get a blood test at least every 6 months to monitor your health.

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If you know of anyone that might be interested in XC, please send their name and phone number or email. I'll contact them and invite them to join.

Our team is getting strong, but for long term growth it needs to be larger. I know there is talent out there missing the opportunity to develop and excel as a cross country runner and person of character.

It ISN'T too late to join for this year. Freshmen especially, make a HARD PRESS to convince your classmates to try cross country - just for a week. If they don't like it after a week, they can stop. But they will like it. You are great people to be with. Tell them I'll make the first week easy for them!

They don't need to be great runners. Just great people. Great people will strengthen the team and help us all become better runners.

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NXR – is 23 November. Last year we had our most ever participants, and our best ever finishes. I hope this year will be even more and better. Shannon Fallon and Myrth McDonald are looking into AirBnBs. Let them know if you would like to stay with the team. (I recommend it. It was fun last year and a great team time.) If you prefer, here are the NXR recommended hotels.

NXR is a self-funded trip. (If our fundraising efforts are successful, I hope we can subsidize some costs.) Arrange your own travel and car pooling. I recommend traveling there Thursday evening, to avoid possible travel delay stress. Friday morning is a reasonable alternative. Depart Saturday evening or Sunday. Last year some families stayed longer - touring the Grand Canyon, etc. - but be aware that Monday through Wednesday are not Thanksgiving school holidays this year.

Please enter your NXR intentions here, and update with your travel plans later.

Website - I updated the website with currently available information on our meets. Each meet has its own page, with results and photos from previous years. There is a lot of other information. Please visit the training tips, records, FAQs, Parent Info and other tabs. Please let me know if you encounter errors.

Meet Schedule - The meet schedule is also on the website and directly here. Go to the second page for locations and heat times.

Parental Support – really adds an important element to the team. There are opportunities to support the team by providing Chocolate Milk, hosting a Pasta Party, bringing snacks to meets and helping at the Summit Stinger.